Keir Starmer told MPs he was going to look again at the threshold at which pensioners will get winter fuel payments.The U-turn revealed during Prime Minister’s Questions followed a public outcry which is also widely regarded as having lost the party hundreds of seats in this month’s local elections.

An estimated nine million pensioners stopped receiving payments, worth up to £300 a year, after Labour tightened eligibility criteria last summer. Experts are predicting the government will have to introduce further means testing in order to reinstate the payments. One expert told the Daily Express it was a ‘mystery’ why Labour had not done this last summer.

Currently only those on Pension Credit can claim Winter Fuel Allowance (WFA) so the government will either have to extend the eligibility of that benefit, or introduce another method of means testing it.

Colin Low, managing director at Kingsfleet said: “If the government wishes to extend the number of individuals to whom WFA would be available, then the only thing they can do is to introduce some form of means-testing.

“Realistically, if any government was to address the simplicity but obvious unfairness of WFA, then means-testing was the only way it could be achieved. The mystery is why this wasn’t considered in the summer of 2024.”

Rob Peters, principal at Simple Fast Mortgage added: “This U-turn suggests the government has acknowledged the political and practical fallout of cutting winter fuel payments for those most in need. If payments are reinstated, it’s likely to be a targeted reversal—perhaps for lower- to middle-income pensioners, potentially through a means-tested mechanism.

“While broad reinstatement would be popular, the Treasury will likely aim to protect the most vulnerable without a blanket policy that benefits those who may not need the support. The key challenge will be delivering any revised payments without delays or administrative chaos.”

More than nine million pensioners lost out the winter fuel payments which is a lump-sum of £200 a year for pensioners under 80, and £300 for over-80s,.

It is normally paid in November or December.

The income threshold to qualify for pension credit this year is £11,800 for individuals and £18,023 for pensioner couples’

The BBC reported that a spokesman for the prime minister was unable to say how many more pensioners would qualify again under the U-turn.

“We will only make decisions when we can say where the money is coming from, how we’re going to pay for it and that it’s affordable,” he added.